Getting organised this year

Yendor

Yendor

New elf
Joined
Sep 27, 2022
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4
Hi All,

I've been a lurker for a few years, but I'm getting organised this year so I figured I should sign-up.

I have ~1000 RGB LEDs on my eaves, and have a few 1.4m high spiral trees. Built my first one 2 years ago using a Bunnings tomato trainer, 60LED/m strip light, and an Arduino. Then last year I built 4 using ESPs with WLED instead, and synced them via WiFi (also upgraded the LEDs on my eaves to an ESP and WLED).

This year, I want to do a bigger tree - I want 6m, but the Wife thinks 3m is more than enough. I know most people use things corflute strips and pixels connected via short wires, but I'm leaning towards using strips (is this crazy)? Anyway, "Hi", and I'm sure I'll have some questions soon!
 

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Welcome to ACL! I would make a 6m tree a project for 2023. Most people use nodes and Boscoyo strip on trees that size, not strip. I will agree with the wife, a 6m tree with strip is crazy. Strip has it's uses, a mega tree isn't one
 
Welcome! I think most of us would agree that using strip for a mega tree isn't a great idea. However, you'll find that in this hobby, if someone wants to do something badly enough, they can usually find a way. A 6m tree isn't terribly uncommon, but I've never seen one (or even a 3m tree) done with strip. Part of the problem is that strip doesn't handle moving very well, and mega tree strips tend to flex a lot when they're up, not to mention all the movement when putting them up and taking them down. I would be surprised if you could make it last more than one season.
 
Yep as has already been said. Strip is only really good for rigid mount, and even then you should give enough movement for expansion and contraction hence the reason a lot of people will put strip in channel so there is no tension on it. In saying that I have seen someone did a 2d tree using aluminium and attaching strip to that.
You could split the difference with the height and go say 4.5m I can see 6m being a problem unless you engineer it properly as you have a lot of wind loading on something that size, also getting it up and down can present problems as there is a lot of weight in it.
However 3m is probably a little small you could nearly fit that in your lounge room. :coffee:
You could always agree with the wife and tell her you will do a smaller one, then accidently stuff the measurements make it a bit bigger and say it was all to do with the available materials xD
However you go, if you end up getting the clap you will most likely use the first tree as a test run and build one bigger and better the following year anyway!
 
Strip will be a pain to repair in the context of a tree unless you have a few spare strands ready to go, and as mentioned wind will not be your friend.
Personally my main tree is 3m but it works ,as i am well above street level. If i had flatter terrain 4-4.5m would be optimal.
 

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Thanks for the feedback!

The 3m sounds like it feels small considering my current ones are 1.4m, but I've looked at other peoples and it seems a good size. I can always add a few more spiral trees fairly easily, and do a 5m+ next year.

I didn't mention it, but I have access to a decent workshop so I can cut/weld/paint bits of metal as required.

I found the "Light Show Hub Mega Tree Calculator" and had a play with that. If I want to make a 3m high mega-tree from 30led/m strips, and keep it roughly the same spacing vertically and horizontally, I would need 40 strings and 3600 LEDs. Seems fairly full-on, but still do-able. But supporting the LEDs with aluminium flat bar would be $17/string, so $680 just for the supports. I was wondering about the possibility of using 15mm webbing - has anyone ever seen something like this in the past?

If I change it all to 2" spacing, that drops off to 20 strings and 1320 pixels. The Boscoyo mounting strip is ~$1.5/m, so it would be $120 for supports.

The planning continues...
 
If your going to use strip it will have to be fixed to something. I've seen a few done before on a smaller scale. Looked ok lit up.
 
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